The vehicle in the top two photos is an ex Busways unit. It was one of four identical units that went to Fearnes.

They were a horrible bus to drive compared to their 0405 bigger brothers. Coupled to an auto transmission, upon taking your foot off the brake at the lights, they would just sit there until they were flogged to get moving. This is, of course, under typical Busways operating conditions. As a country school bus they are probably not too bad a bus.

I know 1418's are so slooooow but they are great around Wagga for school work and town work, heres a photo of MO9184 very similar to the Nicholls 1418, I think it might be ex Fearnes MO2186 (correct me if im wrong) Out of the manual trans 1418 Fearnes had I think MO2580 was the best. Out of the remaining auto trans 1418's at Fearnes I think MO4643 is the best or MO4331 because it is nicer to drive and it has a CC 510 body.

Last edited by fearnes3848 on Tue Nov 04, 2008 8:17 pm, edited 2 times in total.

stajourneyman wrote:The vehicle in the top two photos is an ex Busways unit. It was one of four identical units that went to Fearnes.

They were a horrible bus to drive compared to their 0405 bigger brothers. Coupled to an auto transmission, upon taking your foot off the brake at the lights, they would just sit there until they were flogged to get moving. This is, of course, under typical Busways operating conditions. As a country school bus they are probably not too bad a bus.

At the time when Busways bought the four 1418's that were sold to Fearnes, Mercedes Benz had a shortage of O405 chassis and they built the 4 four up real quick for the demand of buses. You are right though stajourneyman, you can slam your foot hard to the floor and they just get going at their own pace just like an elderley person would in a country town like Wagga On a few of them you can see stiches off red around the Fearnes blue paintwork where it has been masked up.